NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 29, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MSNBC and msnbc.com today unveiled the new website for "The Rachel Maddow Show," available at www.rachel.msnbc.com. The new site gives "The Rachel Maddow Show's" rapidly growing on-air audience an enhanced extension of the brand online. Rachel Maddow hosts MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show," featuring Maddow's take on the biggest stories of the day, political and otherwise, including lively debate with guests from all sides of the issues, in-depth analysis and stories no other shows in cable news will cover.
With the launch of the site, viewers can now enjoy the "The Rachel Maddow Show" on any platform, anytime. Consumers can also easily embed their favorite segments from the show into their own blogs or websites. And the immersive online video experience will feature a podcast of the full broadcast. Viewers are also encouraged to interact with the web-savvy host and find out what's on Rachel's radar through her conversations on Newsvine, msnbc.com's leading social media news site, and on "The Rachel Maddow Show" page on Twitter.
"Msnbc.com is smart, pretty, popular, creative and fast -- it's all the things anyone ever wanted to be in high school, but no one could ever be them all at once... until msnbc.com!" said Maddow. "We love the new 'Rachel Maddow Show' website. We hope all our viewers do, too."
MSNBC's seven-week old "The Rachel Maddow Show" marked a huge milestone, out-rating CNN's "Larry King Live" in just its second month on the air among Adults 25-54, the first time ever MSNBC has out-rated CNN at 9 p.m. (700,000 vs. 673,000, program data, excludes presidential debates). "The Rachel Maddow Show" is up an astounding 396 percent from Oct. 07 among A25-54 (700,000 vs. 141,000) and up 387 percent in total viewers (1,893,000 vs. 389,000).
"Our TV show is really just the one-hour tip of a 24-hour iceberg. Like our viewers, we're always thinking and talking about the news. Msnbc.com gives us a perfect platform by which we can engage the audience while we get ready for our turn on TV," said Bill Wolff, Executive Producer of "The Rachel Maddow Show" and Vice President, Primetime Programming, MSNBC.
Special features on the new "Rachel Maddow Show" site include "Talk Me Down" and "It's Pat." Every night Rachel asks a guest to talk her down about a particularly troubling development in the news. Viewers can contribute their thoughts and "talk Rachel down" each night by logging into Newsvine. "It's Pat" features video and commentary from Pat Buchanan, an MSNBC political analyst and frequent guest on the show who has been a senior adviser to three presidents and was twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. The site will also feature popular video segments, including "Ms. Information," "Rachel Re," and "Just Enough."
"The new 'rachel.msnbc.com' site gives viewers an online experience to match the high-quality and high-energy of the broadcast," said Randy Stearns, Deputy Editor, msnbc.com. "The design delivers a truly interactive experience that allows people to chat with the host, watch full programs or just their favorite segments, or subscribe to the podcast."
Built on the worldwide resources of NBC News, MSNBC defines news for the next generation with world-class reporting and a full schedule of live news coverage, political analysis and award-winning documentary programming -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week. MSNBC's home on the Internet is msnbc.com. Msnbc.com delivers a fuller spectrum of news. Drawing on its award-winning original journalism, NBC News heritage, trusted sources and Microsoft's advanced technologies, the site presents compelling, diverse and visually-engaging stories on the consumer's platform of choice. Nielsen Online reports more than 43 million unique visitors for September 2008, making msnbc.com the number one news site, ahead of Yahoo! News, CNN, ABC, CBS, and Fox News.
Members of the media can get more information about MSNBC and its programming on msnbc.com or the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at www.nbcumv.com.